Figures & Images

We’ve already seen the table environment. It does nothing more than contain a table and any metadata, such as a caption or reference.

Its (very) similar ally is the figure environment. It signals LaTeX that any type of figure is to come—an image, mathematical graphic, even a table if you want. In many ways, it’s like tables where the younger sister, and figures are the mother of all things that aren’t just paragraphs of text 👨‍👩‍👧

The syntax is

1\begin{figure}[position]
2    % ... your figure ...
3    \caption{theCaption} 
4\end{figure}

Images

Again, TeX shows its age. It was created mainly for typesetting text, way before computer images were a big deal, so they aren’t supported by default. To use them, include the graphicx package.

Then, including any graphics is exactly as you’d expect:

1\includegraphics[parameters]{linkToFile}

Links can be relative (someFile.jpg), which searches for other images within the same folder as the TeX document.

They can also be absolute (C:\Users\John\someFile.jpg), which search from the root of your device.

There are four supported image types: .png, .jpg, .pdf, .eps. The parameters can be used to scale and/or crop the image. Try these properties:

 1\usepackage{graphicx}
 2
 3\begin{document} Lorem ipsum Uno
 4    \begin{figure}
 5        \includegraphics[width=0.25\textwidth]{ProfPanda.png}
 6    \end{figure}
 7    
 8    Lorem ipsum Duo
 9    \begin{figure}[h]
10        \includegraphics[width=0.25\textwidth]{ProfPanda.png}
11    \end{figure}
12\end{document}

Wrapping Text around Figures

The regular figure environment adds line breaks before and after the graphic. If you want text (and other environments) to nicely wrap around it, include the wrapfig package.

Use a special environment:

1\begin{wrapfigure}[lineHeight]{position}{width}

The width is, obviously, the width of the figure. The position has eight possible values:

The uppercase versions allow LaTeX to float the figure to the best place—they are merely suggestions. The lowercase versions force it to follow whatever you specified.

The optional lineHeight argument accepts any positive integer. It will set the figure’s height relative to your font size. For example, lineHeight 2 means it’s the same length as the height of two lines of text.

 1\usepackage{graphicx}
 2\usepackage{wrapfig}
 3
 4\begin{document} 
 5Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi non arcu pulvinar, mattis diam sed, tempus velit. Proin et faucibus sapien, eu vehicula lorem. Fusce consequat diam ac urna ullamcorper, sodales pharetra eros accumsan. 
 6
 7\begin{wrapfigure}{r}{220pt}
 8    \caption{What?! I don't see anything!?}
 9\end{wrapfigure} 
10
11Maecenas accumsan tellus eu erat molestie, eget sollicitudin sem volutpat. Morbi vel nisi vel magna consectetur pellentesque. Pellentesque in orci id urna luctus ornare. Praesent nisi nulla, congue et molestie vel, molestie in est.
12\end{document}

Side Caption

So far, captions could be placed either above or below the figure. If you want them to the side of the graphic, include the sidecap package and the SCfigure environment.

 1\usepackage{graphicx}
 2\usepackage{sidecap}
 3
 4\begin{document} 
 5Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi non arcu pulvinar, mattis diam sed, tempus velit. Proin et faucibus sapien, eu vehicula lorem. Fusce consequat diam ac urna ullamcorper, sodales pharetra eros accumsan. 
 6
 7\begin{SCfigure}
 8    \includegraphics[scale=0.25]{ProfPanda.png}
 9    \caption{Oh noes, a wild panda! Did you know, that pandas don't even like bamboo, but just eat it anyway?}
10\end{SCfigure} 
11
12Maecenas accumsan tellus eu erat molestie, eget sollicitudin sem volutpat. Morbi vel nisi vel magna consectetur pellentesque. Pellentesque in orci id urna luctus ornare. Praesent nisi nulla, congue et molestie vel, molestie in est.
13\end{document}

Minipage

Minipages are environments that, unsurprisingly, contain a “mini page”. These are completely separated from the overall document. Like a small page from another book that you just inserted here.

This is useful for creating complex layouts, such as lots of images next to each other, without breakig the overall flow of your document. This is possible, because minipages scale to the size of whatever’s inside, and don’t insert any white space or line breaks around it.

To create one, use

1\begin{minipage}[position]{width}
2    % ... whatever you want inside ...
3\end{minipage}

 1\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
 2    \centering
 3    \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{ProfPanda.png}\
 4    Panda Uno
 5\end{minipage}
 6
 7\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
 8    \centering
 9    \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{ProfPanda.png}\
10    Panda Duo
11\end{minipage}